Man Faces More Charges in Costa Mesa Playground Deaths

By RICHARD MAROSI

Jan. 15, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Prosecutors have added special circumstance murder charges against Steven Allen Abrams, the man accused of killing two children and injuring several others by deliberately ramming his car into a crowded Costa Mesa playground last year.

Authorities allege that Abrams intentionally killed the children while lying in wait, an enhanced murder charge that carries a possible death penalty. Abrams is already eligible for the death sentence under the original special circumstance charge of multiple murder filed last year.

At a hearing Friday in Newport Beach, Abrams waived his right to a preliminary hearing. Abrams’ next scheduled pretrial court date is Jan. 25.

Sierra Soto, 4, and Brandon Wiener, 3, were killed and four children and a teacher were injured May 3 when a car plowed through the chain-link fence at Southcoast Early Childhood Learning Center.

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Richard Marosi

Richard Marosi is a former Metro editor for the Los Angeles Times. He previously reported from the U.S.-Mexico border. Marosi was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2015 for his series on Mexican laborers and in 2013 for his stories on the fate of thousands of immigrants who were deported from the U.S. to Mexico in recent years. He has delved deeply into Mexico’s drug wars, producing a groundbreaking series on the Sinaloa cartel and sharing an Overseas Press Club Award in 2009. In the early 2000s, his corruption investigations in Southeast Los Angeles County contributed to the indictment or ouster of a dozen politicians and city officials. Marosi is a Southern California resident but remains loyal to the Giants, 49ers and Warriors of his native San Francisco Bay Area.

Man Faces More Charges in Costa Mesa Playground Deaths

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